Information About Me

I was born in the middle of the last century and grew up in Maryland. After completing high school and then college in Virginia, I enjoyed a 22 year career as an Air Force officer specializing in communications and electronics systems.  After retiring from the Air Force on 1 January 2000 ("Y2K" Day for those that remember that sort of thing), I enjoyed a second career in systems engineering as a development contractor in the Washington DC metropolitan area.

I retired for good in 2019 and moved with my wife Ana to South America where we are enjoying the retired expat life at Casa Harvana.  Now I have plenty of time to explore many of my hobbies such as woodworking, stained glass, gardening, and of course, creating music.

The name Harvana is simply a merger of me, Harvey, and my wife, Ana.  We thought it would be a great play on words that also represents the life we have together. We named our house "Casa Harvana" and it's where I am currently doing my music creation and recording.

The logo design in the form of an Egyptian cartouche was inspired by our vacation there in 2022.  The hieroglyphs themselves are those used typically by jewelers and other artisans for spelling people's names. So they actually spell out "Harvana" from top to bottom, with the harp hieroglyph added to represent "song" or "music".

I had an interest in music from an early age, but for the most part I never had any formal musical training myself.  When I was very young, my dad bought my mother a Hammond S6 Chord Organ, and everyone in the house enjoyed playing it over the years.  When I was six years old or so, my older brother had home "piano" lessons on it and I would watch his lessons.  Afterward, I would get on the organ myself and play what his teacher was teaching him.  I discovered I could learn as well as play music by ear. (I kept the Hammond organ for several years after my parents passed away. The organ itself finally died a few years back and now my son-in-law uses it as furniture and a bar.)

Later on, I took actual lessons for trumpet, and played in both my high school and college bands. I got my first guitar when I was in 8th grade, and also played bass guitar in my church music group during high school.  With a bit of negotiating, I was able to convince my dad to upgrade me to a Gibson Hummingbird six string acoustic in my senior year of high school.  I still treasure it today for general playing and also use it in some of my musical compositions.

Starting in high school and for most of my life, I would dabble from time to time in writing and singing songs.  I even recorded a few of them using a borrowed reel-reel tape recorder.  The majority weren't anything to write home about, but a few of them were halfway decent.  Mostly, they gave me experience to draw from for what I create now.

To date, I have released four CD's, beginning with View from Down the Road, released in 2022, followed by Everything, released in 2023.  My third CD was released in mid-2024, and is titled Lost Along the Path. It is a rock operetta that tells the story of a misguided baby boomer.  My latest CD is titled Point of Origin and was released in the fall of 2024.

I am a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).